HENRI PAUL ROYER PAINTINGS FOR SALE & BIOGRAPHY
HENRI PAUL ROYER
French, 1869-1938
BIOGRAPHY
Henri Paul Royer was born in Nancy, the son of Jules Royer (1849-1900) who founded an important lithographic printing company on Nancy's Rue de la Selpêtrière. The young artist first enrolled a the École des Beaux Arts in Nancy where met Émile Friend. His early teachers were Antoine Vierling and Louis-Théodore Devilly and his first public exhibits were at the Salon de Nancy. Royer travelled with his friend Friant to Holland in 1887 and enrolled in the École des Beaux Arts in Paris the following year. He continued his studies at the Académie Julian with Jules Joseph Lefebvre and François Flameng.
Royer was a regular exhibitor at the Paris Salon beginning in 1890, showing both portraits and genre subjects. He was awarded the Prix National by the Société hors-concours aux Artistes Français in 1898, and a gold medal at the International Exhibition of 1900. He was made a knight of the Légion d’Honneur in 1900 and an officer in 1931. During the First World War he was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Military Cross. Royer taught at both the the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux Arts. His students included Jacques Majorelle, Thérèse Geraldy and Émile Louis Picault.
Royer and his wife traveled to Brittany in 1896 and were to spend much of the rest of their lives there. The artist was particularly interested in the Breton people, and even learned their dialect - he painted them with great sympathy and accuracy. The influence of Jules Bastien-Lepage's depictions of Brittany life is pronounced in much of Royer's work as it is in some of Royer’s English contemporaries such as George Clausen and Henry Herbert LaThangue. As a devout Catholic Royer also painted religious subjects.
Despite Royer’s allegiance to Brittany, he traveled extensively in Europe (including Greece and Sicily) and in North and South America. He illustrated the works of Guy de Maupassant. A retrospective exhibition to honor the artist was held in Audierne, Brittany in 2008.
Museum Collections
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brest
Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC
Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Langres
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy
Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Petit Palais, Paris
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Musée du Luxembourg, Paris
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Musée de Quimper, Quimper
Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro
Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Toul
University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, MD
